ESPN Men's Basketball

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The first weekend of the NCAA tournament went about as smoothly as Duke could have hoped.

The Blue Devils didn't fall victim to a shocking upset and received hardly a challenge on their way to the Sweet 16. And given their recent tournament history, that's noteworthy in itself.

Duke methodically took down eighth-seeded California 68-53 on Sunday. The Golden Bears made one little run in the second half to get within seven points at 44-37, but the Blue Devils quickly extinguished that fire and kept the margin safely at double digits down the stretch.

It was an impressive defensive effort against a California team that lives to run-and-gun and shoots from anywhere beyond the midcourt stripe. The Bears went just 3-for-12 on three-pointers and their Big Three of Jerome Randle, Theo Robertson and Patrick Christopher were held in check, totaling just 35 points.

Duke's Nolan Smith led all scorers with 20 points and hounded Randle defensively. Brian Zoubek had 14 points and 12 rebounds, six of them on the offensive glass. The Blue Devils owned a 38-24 advantage on points in the paint.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The first batch of games here in Jacksonville lacked the drama that gripped some of the other sites. Three of the first four contests were decided by double digits.

But with Cornell, Duke, Cal and Wisconsin, I'd put this pod's SAT scores up against any other subregional. Here's a look at the games on tap for Sunday:

Cornell (12) vs. Wisconsin (4), 2:50 p.m.

Key to the game: Cornell can shoot it as well as anybody. Wisconsin defends as well as anybody. Sounds simplistic, but that's basically what this game boils down to. Cornell dissected Temple, another good defensive team, in the first round, getting pretty much whatever open looks it wanted. Wisconsin rarely allows anybody to feel comfortable, but its defensive philosophy of chasing shooters off the three-point line will be challenged by a team with four players capable of draining the long ball at any time.

"We have to try to take away their air space," Badgers forward Jon Leuer said. "When you have a guy breathing right down your neck when you come off a screen, it makes you think twice about shooting a 3. We have to make them put it on the floor and hopefully take some tough jumpers."

Player to watch: Wisconsin's Trevon Hughes. He makes the Badgers go, and his ability to penetrate and dish could cause problems for Cornell's defense. Louis Dale will be under a lot of pressure to slow Hughes down.

Who has the edge: Believe it or not, Cornell. Wisconsin has struggled shooting the ball lately, and the Big Red is riding a huge wave of confidence right now. They proved they could handle a deliberate, defensive-minded team in the first round and will be headed to the Sweet 16 if they play the same way today.

California (8) vs. Duke (1), 5:15 p.m.

Key to the game: The Golden Bears and Blue Devils meet in the tournament for the first time since Jason Kidd outdueled Bobby Hurley in 1993. Duke's trio of Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer garner a lot of attention, but Cal has its own Big Three with Jerome Randle, Theo Robertson and Patrick Christopher. Emphasize the word "three" with that group, because all of them like to let it fly from way beyond the college arc, as Louisville found out Friday night. They give the underdog Bears a shooter's chance.

"We haven't played a team with this many weapons from the outside," Scheyer said. "It's all about being disciplined on defense."

Duke, though, has a major advantage in size, as Cal's only starter over 6-foot-6 is former Blue Devils transfer Jamal Boykin. And this is one of the best defensive teams, at least statistically, that Mike Krzyzewski has ever fielded. Duke will have to close out on shooters and prevent the Bears from getting runouts in transition like they did Friday against Louisville.

Player to watch: Randle. The point guard, whom Krzyzewski called "a blur," can change the game with his speed, deep range and near-automatic foul shooting. He'll be matched up against Duke's best on-ball defender in Smith.

Who has the edge: Duke. Cal had a nice performance against Louisville, but hasn't proved it can beat an elite team yet this season. The Blue Devils should be able to ride their length and depth to avoid the same second-round fate as fellow No. 1 seed Kansas.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- We take it all back, Pac-10.

Sure, all year we held our noses while looking at your standings. Maybe we scoffed at your lack of marquee wins or ranked teams. We said some things we regret, like you were one of the worst major leagues in recent memory and that you only deserved one NCAA Tournament bid this year.

Our bad.

Clearly, you must still know how to play a little basketball. Washington knocked off Marquette on Thursday, and then here in Jacksonville on Friday night, California stomped Louisville 77-62. That's Marquette and Louisville from the Big East, supposedly the king of all conferences. Before this week, the Pac-10 had scored only one first-round win over the Big East in NCAA tournament play since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

So go ahead. Crow a little bit.

"I've been listening to a lot of things that have been said about the Pac-10, and honestly I feel like we have great players and great teams," Cal senior guard Jerome Randle said. "Just because we didn't have any Top 25 teams, people were trashing our league. But we were competitive every night. Luckily, Cal and Washington got in, and we were able to send a message in the first round."

Some had wondered if the Bears even deserved to make the field. Despite winning the Pac-10 regular season title and boasting a high RPI, they didn't have any great wins this season. They felt they had something to prove as a No. 8 seed.

"No matter what people were saying about the league, we still felt like it was a tremendous accomplishment to win the conference," forward Theo Robertson said. "We wanted to come out here and show the nation, really, that we're a good basketball team."

It didn't take Louisville long to find that out. The Bears opened with a blitzkrieg, scoring the game's first 12 points and racing out to leads of 22-4 and 30-12.

"I was a little upset that Obama didn't put us in his bracketology," Randle joked, referring to the president's own Pac-10 doubting picks. "So I just wanted to come out strong."

What Cal lacked in big bodies and physical play -- a strength of the purportedly superior Big East -- it more than made up for with speed and shooting. When the Cardinals tried to press, Randle zipped right by them. When Louisville made two serious runs to get within striking distance, Randle, Robertson and Patrick Christopher made key shots to keep the lead afloat.

"Just bang, bang, bang," coach Mike Montgomery said. "We shot the ball and probably caught them off guard, which we do occasionally."

Montgomery doesn't have a deep team, and his bench was shorter than normal after the suspension of starting forward Omondi Amoke. Randle played all 40 minutes, while Robertson and Christopher logged 38 minutes each against Louisville's constant full-court pressure defense. Yet it was Cal that ended the game on a 12-2 run over the final six minutes.

The small rotation and lack of size figures to be a factor against top-seeded Duke on Sunday. But the Bears are still carrying the Pac-10 banner.

"Now we want to prove to people that we are capable of wining more than one game," Randle said.

We promise not to doubt you anymore, Pac-10. Can we be friends again?

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- To say California vs. Louisville was a game of runs is like saying the ocean has a few waves.

The Bears opened the game with a 22-4 lead, then saw Louisville get it back to single digits late in the first half. After Cal built a 14-point edge in the second half, the Cardinals stormed back to get within four points with seven minutes left.

But Cal had the last run and the last laugh, advancing to play Duke on Sunday with a 77-62 win.

The end came for Louisville when the Cardinals were called for an intentional foul with 2:43 left after coach Rick Pitino yelled for his team to foul. Pitino argued and was slapped with a technical, giving California four free throws and the ball.

Really, though, the Bears won with their outside shooting. Every time Louisville got close, a Cal shooter would hit a big jumper. Jerome Randle, Theo Robertson and Patrick Christopher combined to make all eight of the team's 3-pointers and scored 59 points together.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, got very little from their backcourt outside of Edgar Sosa. Starting guards Jerry Smith and Reginald Delk and top reserve Preston Knowles were a combined 3-for-17 from the floor.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Quick halftime thoughts from the final game of the day here at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, where No. 8 seed Cal leads No. 9 Louisville 41-30:

• The start of the game was delayed by 20 minutes as arena workers fixed a malfunctioning clock above one of the baskets. The teams retreated to the locker room while the work was performed, and Louisville might as well not have even come out for the first six minutes of the game.
  

• Cal scored the first 12 points and held a bloated 22-4 lead after an intentional foul on Terrence Jennings resulted in a five-point trip. The start resembled the blowout runs Rick Pitino's old Kentucky teams used to put on tournament opponents, but the other way around. Patrick Christopher hit three 3-pointers early and finished the half with 13 points

• The Cardinals, though, didn't fold. They used a 12-0 run midway through the half to get back in it as the Bears started to get sloppy with the ball. The lead shrank to six points late in the half, but Jerome Randle's 35-foot buzzer-beater put Cal back on top by 11 points and could be a huge momentum changer.
• Rick Pitino rolled the dice and let point guard Edgar Sosa play with two fouls in the first half. Sosa picked up his third foul on a charge with a little more than five minutes to go. Pitino has shown little faith in freshman Peyton Siva, so the point guard situation is one to watch in the second half.
• Louisville's press didn't seem to bother Cal much as the Bears used their quickness to break it several times for easy scores. But Mike Montgomery's team isn't very deep with the suspension of starting forward Omondi Amoke, and all five starters played at least 17 minutes in the first half. Can they avoid fatigue and hang on to this lead?

LOS ANGELES -- The Pac-10 tournament final Saturday between Washington and Cal saw 22 lead changes and 12 ties, and mirrored the constantly fluctuating season the downtrodden conference had. The way both teams played, however, belied the national perception the league was only sending one team to the NCAA tournament.

While Washington (24-9) earned the conference’s automatic bid with a 79-75 win, there is no question Cal (23-10) is just as deserving. After splitting the season series, both seemed to split baskets from the opening tip in what was easily the best game of an otherwise forgettable tournament played in front of a mostly empty arena the past four days.

As maligned as the Pac-10 has been this season, it at least saved its best performance for a national television audience. It would be hard to find a better tournament final from start to finish than the one Washington and Cal put on at the Staples Center.

Elston Turner's five straight points, including a 3-pointer, put Washington ahead for good, 71-68, with 3:22 remaining.

After depending on the play of leading scorers Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher all season, the Bears were forced to look elsewhere as their talented senior duo had combined for just 10 points with 9:30 left in the game. Fellow seniors Jamal Boykin, who finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds, and Theo Robertson, who had 25 points, were the only reasons Cal was in the game.

“He got two fouls early which is a little unusual,” said Cal coach Mike Montgomery of Randle. “We had him [Randle] out of the game for a fair portion trying to get him back and forth and not get a third foul. He’s small so they can post him with a variety of different people. It caused a problem, no question.”

Washington guard Isaiah Thomas, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player, scored 16 points and smiled when asked about guarding Randle. The Huskies made it known they believed Washington forward Quincy Pondexter, who scored 18 points, should have been named the conference’s player of the year over Randle.

“I feel [Pondexter] should have won player of the year and I feel like we should have won the Pac-10 championship,” said Thomas. “We brought all the motivation we could to get this win.”

This was the marquee final the Pac-10 had hoped for in the preseason when Cal and Washington were ranked in the top 15 in the country in both polls. As the season progressed it became impossible to predict which teams would play in the Pac-10 tournament final.

“Some of the losses we got early on in the league hurt the perception,” Montgomery said. “Washington just really lost Brockman from last year. They’re pretty good. I don’t know how there could have been any question about Washington getting in. But if there was, it’s obviously erased. Now we just have to wait and see if they give Arizona State a tumble.”

As much as the Huskies felt they deserved to be in the NCAA tournament, if they had not beaten Cal on Saturday, there was a fairly good chance they would be sitting home next week.

After the game, Pondexter smiled as he hugged the Pac-10 tournament trophy.

“I’m going to be able to sleep tonight finally,” said Pondexter. “I’ve been going to sleep watching 'SportsCenter' every night hearing if we’re in or out, or on the bubble or off the bubble. ... We told each other if we handle business we don’t need a committee to decide if we’re good enough.”

LOS ANGELES -- The precarious bubble Washington sat on heading into the Pac-10 tournament final against Cal became even shakier before the game began. Houston’s upset win in the Conference USA final over No. 25 UTEP, not to mention big wins by fellow bubble teams Minnesota and Mississippi State over ranked teams, means Washington may be in a position where it must win the Pac-10 tournament in order earn an NCAA tournament bid.

In the first half, the Huskies have done everything in their power to keep the decision out of the selection committee's hands, taking a 41-37 lead. Quincy Pondexter has 12 points, half of them coming at the free-throw line.

In a back-and-forth first half that saw 16 lead changes and eight ties, Cal was able to stay in the game thanks to Theo Robertson, who scored 16 points. The Bears also scored 12 points off eight Washington turnovers. California, which shot 70.8 percent in the second half of its win over UCLA will likely shoot better than the 37.1 percent it did in the first half. The Huskies can also expect Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher, who combined for only 10 points in the first half, to find their stride in the second half.

At the very least, if Washington continues to battle Cal the way it has in the first half, and the eye-ball test still means anything to the selection committee, the Huskies -- who split the season series with the Bears this season -- have proven they are on par with Cal.

LOS ANGELES -- Washington’s season looked as if it was already over midway through its conference schedule. Following a loss to USC, gathered in the Trojans' visitor's locker room just two miles up the road from the Staples Center, Quincy Pondexter got up and told his teammates it was only uphill from here.

The Huskies had dropped five of their last seven games and had just lost by 26 points by a team ineligible to play in the postseason.

“The landmark moment for us was after the USC game,” said Pondexter. “At the end of the game guys knew it couldn’t get any worse. And we started playing the right way. ... I think we’ve bought into everything offensively and defensively since then and we’ve been playing much better basketball.”

Since its Jan. 23 loss to USC, Washington (23-9) has won 11 of its last 13 games and six games in a row heading into today's Pac-10 Tournament championship game against Cal (23-9). After being left for dead as late as last week, the Huskies can now claim the conference’s automatic bid or at least make a case for an at-large berth with a strong showing on national television.

The marquee final between the two best teams in the conference is the first bright spot of what has been an otherwise down year for the Pac-10, which was perceived as a one-bid league when the tournament started after sending six teams last season. Washington and Cal split the season series, winning on each other’s court by double digits. Both were perceived as the class of the conference in the preseason, when they were ranked in the top 14 the first week of the season.

“These are two teams that have really, really competed,” said Washington coach Lorenzo Romar. “I think [Cal] is better from the first time we’ve played. I think they’ve gotten into a great rhythm were they are playing very good basketball. Those three 1,000-point career scorers have been through a lot of games and a lot of situations and they play with great calm and don’t get rattled. They do a tremendous job.”

Romar was referring to Cal’s senior triumvirate of Jerome Randle, the Pac-10 Player of the Year, Patrick Christopher and Theo Robertson. A fourth senior, Jamal Boykin, will likely reach the 1,000-point plateau as well before his career wraps up.

“When you look at their seniors, they have scored 5,600 points combined between the four guys, I think the next closest in the Pac-10 is about 2,500 points for graduating seniors,” said UCLA coach Ben Howland. “Those guys are special.”

The game will feature five of the top ten scorers in the league (Pondexter and Isaiah Thomas for Washington and Randle, Christopher and Robertson for Cal) and California and Washington are ranked in the top two in the conference in scoring offense and scoring margin. Judging from their first two games the Pac-10 final could easily turn into a rout for whichever team feels more at home. Cal has certainly made it a point to run teams off court as of late, winning nine of its last 10 games by double digits.

“We have a lot of similarities,” said Pondexter. “It’s always a tough battle and whoever executes better wins. We’re both competing for a championship so that adds a great dynamic to this series, but it’s always fun playing against them.”

LOS ANGELES –- The disparity in talent was apparent each time the teams huddled on the court. On one end, Cal was lead by a quartet of seniors who had combined to score 5,536 points during their careers and collectively averaged 60.1 points per game this season.

On the other end, UCLA was led by a senior who had scored 981 points during his career and was thrust into a leadership role this season as one NBA draft pick after another left Westwood early following the school’s three straight trips to the Final Four.

As the clock ticked down on Cal’s 85-72 win over UCLA in the semifinal of the Pac-10 tournament, Michael Roll put his hands over his head and looked up at the Staples Center ceiling and exhaled. This wasn’t the way Roll was supposed to end his collegiate career. Not after the way it began with three straight trips to the Final Four and 30-plus win seasons. But that’s what happens when you are a solid role player forced to become a leader on a storied program now full of role players and no real stars.

Roll finished his career scoring a career-high 27 points while the only other active senior for UCLA, Nikola Dragovic, scored eight points and hit just 1 of 8 shots from 3-point range. Senior forward James Keefe, who was averaging 2.2 points, had season ending surgery on his left shoulder last month.

While the Bruins lacked playmaking seniors all year, Cal has been brimming with them this season.

Jerome Randle, who was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year, surpassed Sean Lampley on Friday as the all-time leading scorer in Cal history after scoring 24 points. Patrick Christopher leaped over Kevin Johnson and Joe Shipp into fourth place on the school's all-time scoring list after scoring 16 points. Theo Robertson, who is the school’s all-time leader in 3-point shooting percentage, added 20 points, including three from beyond the arc, and Jamal Boykin, who was named all-conference second team this season, rounded out the Cal seniors by scoring 10 points.

Cal’s four seniors scored 70 of the Bears’ 85 points against UCLA and sparked the team’s comeback in the second half.

“When you look at their seniors, they have scored 5,600 points combined between the four guys, I think the next closest in the Pac-10 is about 2,500 points for graduating seniors,” said UCLA coach Ben Howland. “Those guys are special.”

Howland understands he too could have had a special group if he was able to keep his players from leaving school early. In a perfect college basketball world, where players stay until they graduate, Roll would have been the fourth option in a starting lineup that would’ve featured Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook and Jrue Holiday.

“It’s always tough when you lose players early,” Howland said. “But that is the current climate in college basketball and that won’t change in the foreseeable future.”

Cal’s senior leadership was evident early in the second half when Robertson scored seven straight points, including a 3-pointer to give Cal its first lead of the game. The Bears shut down UCLA defensively and hit nearly every open shot, shooting a staggering 70.8 percent from the field in the second half and outscoring UCLA 50-33.

“We adjusted on Roll, who is hard to guard,” Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. “Roll ended up with 27 but he had 16 at the half and for the first 10-12 minutes he didn’t score which I think was the key for us to be able to get back in it. It really helped that we did a job on the key guy who was Roll.”

As Roll’s career came to a close, he sat on the bench and put his head down, raising it from time-to-time to acknowledge the fans chanting his name and giving him a standing ovation. On the other end of the court Montgomery was also giving the senior a standing ovation. The Cal coach went up to Roll after the game to tell him how much he respected him as a player and how well he played during his career.

Meanwhile the college careers of Montgomery’s seniors continued as they shattered any notion that a Pac-10 tournament championship wouldn’t mean anything to the regular-season champs.

“This group is really close, having played together for the last four years and having been through a lot of games,” Robertson said. “We want to win this tournament. There wouldn’t be a better feeling than winning tomorrow. We understand in the postseason its win or go home so that’s in the back of our minds. We really enjoy playing with each other and we’re not ready for it to end.”

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Confetti rained down from the rafters at Haas Pavilion, as a historic day for Cal happened to coincide with coach Mike Montgomery’s 63rd birthday party.

The Bears clinched at least a share of the conference title with a decisive 62-46 win over Arizona State, marking the first time in 50 years they have been able to call themselves champions. As for Montgomery?

“Getting old,” he mused, concluding his press conference with a false claim that he had turned only 56.

Winning, however, never really did go out of style with Montgomery, who only six years ago captured the last of his conference titles with rival Stanford.

He resigned to take the Golden State Warriors job after that 2004 championship. Two years in the NBA resulted in an under-.500 record and the Warriors parting ways with Montgomery. Two years at Cal led to Montgomery standing at the top of a ladder with scissors in his hands and a hoarse voice while addressing the crowd.

“Honestly, we’ve been under the gun,” Montgomery said. “The stress has taken its toll. My voice started to give up yesterday. It isn’t from yelling.”

The old veterans at Cal bought in and did it together. Celebrating Senior Day, guards Patrick Christopher (14 points) and Jerome Randle, along with forwards Jamal Boykin (14 points) and Theo Robertson (13 points), each helped gradually wear down Arizona State.

Christopher held Ty Abbott, the Sun Devils’ leading scorer, to eight points on 4-of-13 shooting. Randle was limited himself to seven points, but was more than satisfied with wearing the net around his neck and cutting off a strand of it to keep as a memento.

“I’ve never been that high up anywhere,” the 5-foot-10 point guard said.

“Different things from different people, that’s the key,” Montgomery said. “His focus was totally on winning this game. We wasn’t worried about who was scoring. He was just worried that we were scoring.”

ASU led at halftime by a point, but Cal went on an 18-4 run to finish the game and surrendered only two field goals in the final 11 minutes. The Sun Devils were only 3-for-22 from 3-point range.

Cal has fielded teams with more talent, but no team had won a conference championship since Pete Newell’s Bears took the Athletic Association of Western Universities title in 1960.

With the win, the 20-9 Bears also clinched the top seed in the Pac-10 tournament and have hopes of making an NCAA tournament run.

“This team can accomplish so much,” Boykin said. “All the feelings will kick in when this season is over.”

Montgomery declared that the Pac-10 was not a one-bid league, stopping short of saying the conference crown should give the Bears at least an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament.

“Not too concerned about that,” Montgomery said. “Other people make that decision. They can’t take this away.

“To me, the conference championship is the crown jewel. It’s the thing that means the most.”

BERKELEY, Calif. -- If Arizona State is going to ruin Senior Day at Cal and take first place in the Pac-10, it's getting off to a great start.

Derek Glasser and Ty Abbott are doing an excellent job defending the perimeter and pestering Cal's Jerome Randle, who made only one of his first six field goal attempts.

Those 3-pointers from way downtown just aren't there right now.

But Randle, always difficult to stop, scored Cal's final five points of the half to cut the Sun Devil lead to a point.

He has seven on the game after getting emotional during Senior Day ceremonies, and for good reason. Check out Andy Katz's feature on the diminutive guard from Chicago.

Two other Bears seniors, Patrick Christopher and Theo Robertson, have seven points apiece as well.

The Sun Devils were led by Jerren Shipp, who had 10 points off the bench. Shipp's brother, Joe, starred at Cal, a program that desperately wants what would be a historic win.

BERKELEY, Calif. -- It's Senior Day for Jerome Randle, Jamal Boykin, Patrick Christopher and Theo Robertson as a veteran Cal lineup has a chance to end their careers at Haas Pavilion with at least a share of the school's first regular season title in 50 years.

The storyline is there, but will the fans show?

Here's how public address announcer Eddy Kleinhans described the Cal student section in Saturday's student newspaper, the Daily Cal:

The student section is nearly empty through tip-off and our ops crew invites fans to come sit in the student section. Really? Even though we've sold almost 1,500 student tickets, we can't fill-up a 1,200 seat student section for a team that's trying to win Cal's first Pac-10 crown in 50 years? Students, where are you?

But it looks like today will feature a packed house against Arizona State. As of yesterday, the game was actually nearing a sellout.

So yeah, it's as big of a game as it can get in the Pac-10.

UPDATE: The game is indeed sold out, according to a Cal spokesman.

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Here's my starting five:

• Cal's Jamal Boykin is playing inspired basketball. He played with intensity from the opening tip, scoring 20 points and a bunch of those in the paint. The transfer from Duke has really found a home here. After one emphatic swat of a Washington shot, the fans just roared.

• Jorge Gutierrez is still a step slow from a knee injury, yet it's clear how much he means to Cal. The guy does the dirty work, taking the charges no one else wants a part of. He also annoyed Quincy Pondexter. The Bears can only hope his health continues to improve. With 12:10 left, he looked gimpy and asked out of the game momentarily.

• It was somewhat of a homecoming for Pondexter, who grew up in Fresno. His father Roscoe and mother Doris were in the stands watching along with his brother and sister. Pondexter didn't have his best game, but by the end of the night, he was right around his scoring average with 18 points.

• Jerome Randle had a big night with 33 points. He had Haas Pavilion silent after going down hard in the second half, but eventually was checked by trainers and checked back in to provide one final highlight - an alley-oop to Patrick Christopher.

• Crowd favorite Max Zhang got into the game for the first time with 22.3 seconds left. The 7-foot-3 center wasn't needed in this game since Washington forwards might have out-quicked him. Mike Montgomery likes to use Zhang to change the feel of the game, and on this night, Cal was up big the whole time.

LOS ANGELES --- Arizona has the best young talent in the Pac-10.

But it shouldn’t be close as to which team has the most experience.

Cal is still the pick to figure out a way to win the Pac-10.

No other team has as experienced a pair of guards as Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher with Theo Robertson as the third option.

Of course depth is an issue with the Bears, but there’s no reason why Cal shouldn’t find a way to win the regular-season and be in play for a bid.

Or is there?

Well, as the first half was unfolding here at the Galen Center it became clear once again that the Bears have to make perimeter shots or they don’t win.

That has been the issue for this squad. Like some other higher-profile teams that were supposed to be more consistent (like North Carolina or Connecticut) the Bears can’t have an off night and expect to win.

Cal took a 30-27 lead into the half but the Bears had to grind it out as has been the case in the Pac-10.

Randle can be a streaky shooter as can Christopher, but they both can find a way to get into the seams of the Trojans’ defense for layups.

Some other quick thoughts:

• Mike Montgomery must be constantly perplexed by some of the quick shots that the Bears take either from the perimeter or inside. Monty had been such a disciplinarian at Stanford for shot selection.

• USC’s Mike Gerrity is still a calming presence, but isn’t dominating the games in the Pac-10 the way he did when he first became eligible.

• Why isn’t Alex Stepheson much more of a force in the post?

• USC manager Stan Holt is back on the bench. He was reinstated after an ill-timed technical at Oregon led to a Ducks’ 10-0 run and ultimately a USC loss in Eugene last Saturday. Kevin O’Neill said he believes in second chances. Holt looks like he doesn’t want to do anything wrong. He's ready with the timeout chairs and sprints out to deliver them.

• Cal’s Jamal Boykin has really improved his face-up game, hitting a few jumpers. If he continues to do this, the Bears will have a shot to win the Pac-10 tournament at the Staples Center next month.

• Monty is playing zone to mess with USC.

• I'm impressed by the crowd on a Thursday night to see Cal play a Trojans’ team that isn’t going to the postseason.

• USC athletic director Mike Garrett is in the front row on the end line. It’s amazing how he has survived a number of controversial hires and multiple NCAA investigation. The Heisman is a powerful trophy.

• USC has spunk and doesn’t quit. That’s a sign of an O’Neill coached team. There is actual noise here at the Galen Center. I still contend that this could one day be quite a home court.

Just when you thought it was safe to give up on the Pacific-10 as a whole, it’s time to reappraise California.

The Golden Bears slipped from the rankings a while back, but might actually merit watching the rest of the way. In retrospect, their early-season struggles might have had more to do with injuries and a brutal schedule than anything else – and that schedule probably helped the Bears at crunch time in Tempe on Thursday night.

Cal watched homestanding Arizona State whittle its 16-point lead to a single point, 67-66, with 3 minutes, 23 seconds left. With what passes for a rabid Sun Devils crowd making what passes for noise, Mike Montgomery’s team responded by simply doing everything right.

Using 25 seconds of clock, the Bears worked the ball until Jorge Gutierrez had an open 3. He nailed it. After an ASU miss, Cal again passed the ball with patience until Patrick Christopher drove and hit a difficult jumper. Then Christopher hit six straight free throws over the next three possessions, and the game was effectively over. Thanks to 100 percent shooting from the field and the line in the final three minutes, Cal won 78-70 to retain sole possession of first in the Pac-10. The Bears shot 51 percent overall and were a perfect 14-of-14 from the charity stripe.

This looked like a team unfazed by a pressure situation. Why? A bunch of upperclassmen in the lineup helped – but so did having been tested in Madison Square Garden by Syracuse and Ohio State, and playing at New Mexico and at Kansas. The Bears (14-6, 6-2) have the No. 2 strength of schedule in America according to ESPN’s InsideRPI.

California now will attempt its first-ever road sweep of the Arizona schools on Sunday against the second-place Wildcats in Tucson. Sean Miller’s team has won three straight for the first time all season, so that might not be easy either for the Bears.

But one thing is for sure: After playing their schedule, they won’t be rattled.